eastern european eagle

Chapter 619: All Around
The Russian army took devastating cultural measures in Livonia. As for ordinary people, the Tsar announced that they would protect their lives and property as long as they converted.

These people had no choice but to obey his orders and began to destroy the Catholic church and convert to Orthodoxy, while the priests and nobles hid in the castle and tried to hold out and wait for changes.

But Mihaly didn't care about that. He just wanted these cultures and Catholicism to be destroyed. He didn't care about other people, dead or alive, as long as the land belonged to Russia.

Livonia had asked for peace with Michael three times, but the other side demanded 10 gold coins per year. This was directly rejected, so in this case, let's continue fighting.

Now only Riga was left in Livonia, and Lithuania was not much better, with Michael attacking Vilnius fiercely. Vytautas could only send reinforcements continuously, hoping to use the wheel tactics to consume the Russian army.

But in Mihaly's view, continuous reinforcement without too much at once was simply a slap in the face. On the one hand, he bombarded Vilnius indiscriminately, even planning to dig up the remains of successive Lithuanian grand dukes after breaking into the city; on the other hand, he fortified the city and burned down all possible places where the enemy could supply the city.

Under such circumstances, the Lithuanian soldiers had to endure more difficult conditions than usual and at the same time they hated the Russians even more. They wanted to go to Vilnius immediately and destroy the Russian army.

"Hold on, soldiers! Try harder, the enemy is almost exhausted!" The Lithuanian general felt that his troops were losing strength in attack. Although he knew that his shouting would not have much effect, he still couldn't help shouting loudly to arouse their fighting spirit.

But the Lithuanian army continued to make slow progress. The soldiers were exhausted and had difficulty defending themselves, let alone attacking.

The Russian army attacked Vilnius more vigorously. Soldiers climbed up the ladders one by one. When the first one was knocked down, the next one accelerated upwards without hesitation. The artillery kept firing ammunition, and the defenders had no way to stop it.

The fierce offensive soon achieved results, and the defense of the city wall was breached many times. To kill or drive away one of them, the defenders had to sacrifice the lives of several soldiers. For this reason, the people of the whole city joined in the defense of the city, but the Russian army had more bonuses, so they attacked with all their might.

A large number of soldiers quickly climbed up the left wall, entered the corridor, and rushed to the middle section aggressively. The defenders, who were already demoralized, saw that the situation was not good and immediately dropped their weapons and ran into the city.

This run immediately triggered a domino effect. Under the fierce attack of the Russian soldiers in front and on the side, the defenders finally collapsed. They rushed to escape from the top of the city, but blocked the passageway to the lower city. The panicked defenders actually jumped directly from the city wall into the city, breaking their legs and feet, and falling on their heads. They all lay on the ground wailing.

The people in the city were equally terrified, shouting in fear: "The enemy is coming in."

----------

Prokop came to Marienburg as the Hussite envoy to discuss cooperation with Brandenburg.

It had been several years since the Hussite uprising, and during this time they had been growing and developing in Bohemia and taking root in rural areas. Although Sigismund sent troops to encircle and suppress them several times, they were unable to eliminate him.

But soon, the internal contradictions of the Hussites emerged. Since Hus did not want to be king, they established a republic, elected representatives from various places to form a parliament, and then elected 12 people from the parliament to form a committee, which was responsible for governance. Hus was the chairman of the committee. But before governing, Hus was a pastor and the president of a university, so after he began to govern the land, he found that it was indeed difficult to rule.

First, the land system. The committee made a policy to confiscate the land of the Catholic Church, but encountered trouble in the distribution. The Holy Grail Party, represented by merchants and nobles, proposed to purchase it with funds, but the Tabor Party, represented by the majority of civilians, demanded an equal distribution of the land. The two sides argued endlessly in the parliament, and finally Hus mediated and the matter was resolved.

Then there are finance, military and other aspects. Each plan needs to go through a long period of discussion and compromise. This is even more true in diplomacy.

The Holy Grail Party suggested that now that their goal had been basically achieved, they could ask Sigismund to recognize the Republic, so that he could become the protector of the country, and the war could be ended quickly.

But the Tabor faction believed that Sigismund could not be trusted. As long as they continued to fight, the other side would certainly not accept the peace request. At that time, an independent republic would emerge.

Due to the inefficiency of the conference, Sigismund began to unite the Catholic forces to fight back. They recovered some places and stabilized the north by signing a cession treaty with Brandenburg. This made Hus realize the danger, so he sent Prokop to Brandenburg to discuss cooperation.

Prokop belonged to the Tabor faction, but he also realized the gap between himself and the enemy. He had been smooth sailing before because of the help of the Orthodox Church, but now without it, he has shown signs of decline. So now he has to seek cooperation again.

"Dear Elector of Brandenburg, I come to discuss cooperation between our two countries on behalf of the Republic..."

Vlad interrupted Prokop before he could finish. "I think we have no relationship since you drove the cultists to Silesia. I think you will be able to overcome all difficulties, of course without our help."

This was a warning. Prokop suppressed his anger and continued, "The Elector has misunderstood. The two countries are neighbors. How can we just break off the relationship? Moreover, your country saved the Archon before. We will never forget such a kindness.

Now Sigismund has marched towards Prague and is also preparing to attack other places. If he captures Bohemia, you will probably be his next target. "

Vlad's face changed and he slapped the table in front of him. "Nonsense!"

"You'll know if I'm talking nonsense if you wait. You know, many people have defected to Sigismund, and they have all been rewarded. One even became the Elector of Saxony. Do you think Brandenburg will be next?"

Sigismund could indeed do such a thing. The land and wealth owned by the Berlin Alliance were the envy of the southern regions. The Hanseatic League had degenerated into an organization that obeyed Berlin, and merchants invested their funds in the city to set up workshops. If it was taken over, there would be a lot of benefits.

The alliance is now attacking Poland, and if there are people in other directions, Władysław will probably be in trouble, so it is important to find an ally.

(End of this chapter)